Horribly Wrong
by Fhelan
Summary: Robin and the Team go out on what was seemingly an easy mission to find that things don't go quite as planned, resulting in their capture by the Joker. No pairings. In-progress. Robin whumpage! Reviews greatly appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my second fanfic ever. I'm not used to writing about these characters, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy! Note there is descriptions about blood and injuries. Squeamish people, you have been warned.**

**Note: I do not hold copyright claims to Young Justice or it's characters, this was made for entertainment purposes only.**

* * *

Everything was quiet.

Robin slowly opened his eyes through his domino mask and immediately gasped in pain. His head was throbbing horribly and his joints were incredibly stiff, as if he had been out cold for quite awhile. The Boy Wonder shook his head to clear the fog, and yelped in agony yet again. He slowly adjusted his eyes to take in the damage of the situation, and saw that splatters of crimson blood covered his uniform and his left leg sat at a precarious angle. He felt trickles of something running down his forehead and neck. More blood? His tired eyes scanned the debris of what had once been an office building. Surrounding him were a few small fires, broken glass, mountains of concrete and metal bars, and of course, his own blood. Robin struggled to remember why exactly he was there. That's when he saw the gruesome gash on his right side, with a large pool of blood forming around his broken body.

_ What happened? Where's the team? _he thought.

_ The team._

Then he remembered.

Fuzzy memories flashed through Robin's head. Vaguely he recounted that Batman had sent him and his team on a reconnaissance mission. They were to inspect a local office company whom the Justice League believed was working with Sportsmaster to smuggle Kobra Venom into the black markets and crime syndicates of Gotham. The task was simple; Robin had done things like this before in his sleep. They were to report to Batman as soon as they had gathered enough evidence to convict the company, or lack thereof, and get the heck out of there. There was to be no combat, no skirmishes, no nothing. They were to go in unseen and leave unseen.

_ What had gone so wrong?_

Robin's memory grew fuzzy and he moaned in pain as the effects of whatever adrenaline was left in his body wore off, and painfully sucked in a breath of air. Whatever it was that had happened, it appeared he had bruised some ribs along with his fractured leg. A wave of nausea rolled over him and he struggled to hold in his breakfast. _This is not good. _In an attempt to call for backup, the Boy Wonder tried to turn on his wrist-computer, but to no avail. His gadget was broken beyond repair.

_ M'gann? _The little bird called into the mind-link the team had set up before the mission.

_ Superboy? KF? Kaldur? Anybody?_

No response.

"Crap," Robin muttered through gritted teeth. He was alone out here. Or the Team had been out cold as well. But why?

He struggled to sift through his muddled thoughts. His mind was boggy, and he felt his eyes begin to close once again from exhaustion.

_ Stay awake, _He scolded himself.

He looked at his surrounding wreckage. The splintered box that was digging into his broken leg had something written on it in faded white paint.

_ FRAGILE: POTENTIAL BIOHAZARD_

That's when he remembered.

Visions raced through Robin's head once more. He remembered silently running through the lower levels of the building; his friends scouting other parts of the inside, looking for evidence of criminal activity. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary to him; just some old storage rooms with files and dust. The janitor wasn't even around, much less suspicious-looking office workers. But then, he had discovered a obscure trapdoor that his scanners had picked up below one of the file cabinets. There he had found a vast, underground room, where a group of generic goons stood watching a holographic image of the building, probably to keep tabs on their security. Too bad the master hacker had disabled all motion censors, video feeds, and sound recorders before they had ever set foot in the building. Surrounding the goons were piles and piles of the valuable Kobra Venom.

_ Guys, I think we've got our evidence. _He recalled saying into the mind link.

_ Great! _M'gann replied_. Did you get the photographic evidence?_

_ Way ahead of you, _Robin replied as he finished downloading image files of the venom stacks to his wrist-computer, which would then upload the files to the Mount Justice mainframe system. _Got it. Let's go._

_ Great! This place gives me the creeps. _Wally exclaimed.

_ Oh, grow up, Wally. It's not that bad. _Artemis retorted.

The two began to argue in the mind-link about how scary or not the building was until Kaldur finally told them to shut up in the eloquent and sophisticated way only an Atlantean could.

_ Thank you, Kaldur, _Superboy exclaimed a bit exasperatedly. Robin smirked from within the shadows. Wally may be his best friend, but the Boy Wonder would never understand how _blind_ the speedster could be sometimes.

Robin watched the oblivious goons a bit longer to make sure he had not been seen, and then started back up the passageway he had gone up. _Another successful mission in the bag, _the little bird thought smugly. However, as he turned from his hiding place, a familiar maniacal laughter had filled the air. "Leaving so soon, Bird Boy?"

Out of the shadows came the Joker, Sportsmaster, and Mammoth. "You can leave your hiding place, Boy Blunder, we all know you're here." The white-faced clown looked directly at the little bird from his concealed corner of the room. "We know your friends are here too. The baby Justice League never travels without its pack."

Sportsmaster brought out a hefty-looking energy gun and fired it in Robin's direction, missing the boy's domino mask by a fraction of an inch and singing hairs off the side of his head. The trapdoor that was to lead to his escape was completely incinerated.

"Come on out, or next time, _I won't miss_," the man snarled.

_ This was a trap. _

_ Crap, crap, crap, _Robin thought. _Batman said no engaging in combat. I don't think I'll be making it out in one piece by ticking them off though._

_ Ticking who off? _Wally asked.

_ Robin, what is going on? _demanded his team leader.

The Boy Wonder mentally facepalmed himself. The psychic-link was still on.

_ Nothing, guys, I just ran into a little... issue. I'll be outside in a minute._

_ Robin, don't be a hero. Where're you at? _Superboy prodded.

_ I'm near the ground level, just tell me where to go, _M'gann chirped.

_ Do I need to lodge an arrow in someone's skull? _Of course Artemis would take the violent route.

Robin slowly stood up from the shadows and started towards the villains with his hands up, rapidly trying to find a way out of this mess.

_ Guys, chill. I'm in a secret room in the basement. I'll be fine. I can think my way out of anything. _He wasn't so sure about that at the moment, but he would never let himself look weak to his friends. He'd rather die before letting that happen.

_ Too late! I found the entra- _Wally's mental voice was cut short by a yell that filled Robin with dread as the speedster suddenly rammed into him from behind. Kid Flash apparently did not look out for giant holes in the narrow trapdoor corridor in his haste to find his friend.

M'gann, Superboy, and the rest of the team followed soon after.

"Great_," _Robin muttered.

"Sorry_," _Wally said sheepishly.

"Ah, more visitors," the Joker giggled gleefully. "Mammoth, please do show our guests a little... hospitality." The grotesque form of the once-normal human grunted and proceeded to punch the squashed Robin straight into the low-lying ceiling, scattering the young heroes from their dog pile at the trapdoor. The Boy Wonder yelped in pain as he landed unceremoniously back on the ground on his feet and grabbed his injured side. But he couldn't worry about that right now. Thinking quickly, Robin threw his birdarangs at the hulking monster and tumbled out of the way as the weapons detonated. Mammoth roared in rage and proceeded to lash out in every direction. In his confusion, Robin landed neatly on the creature's shoulders and roundhouse kicked him in the back of his ginormous skull, effectively knocking Mammoth out cold.

Sportsmaster readied his gun on a nearby dazed Wally and fired. Kaldur quickly got the speedster out of the way while Miss Martian used telekinesis to implode the gun from the inside, effectively knocking the man back a good twenty feet. The goons that had been watching security were battling it out with Artemis and Superboy. That left the Joker, who was standing where he stood since the battle began, laughing maniacally with joy. Robin used his acrobatic skills to launch himself at the clown's back, knocking him over into a vulnerable position. The Boy Wonder yanked the collar of the Joker's shirt while the white-faced man was still recovering. "What the heck are you plotting, clown?" The man stopped his incessant giggling long enough to blink innocently at the young hero.

"Plotting? Who said anything about plotting?" He smiled wickedly. "I'm just having a little _fun. _Sportsmaster graciously decided to help me out. He even let me borrow some of his toys."

Something clicked in the palm of the Joker's hand as the walls of the room began to recede, revealing row after row of Kobra Venom victims, ready and willing to rip a bunch of underage heroes to shreds. The Boy Wonder's eyes widened beneath his mask. He had no idea of the enormity of the operation Sportsmaster had been running. Robin had always prided himself on his prowess as a crime fighter, but even he knew when there was too much for him to handle, though he would never admit it. Even with the team behind him, there were just too many of the mutants to fight without serious repercussions. The Joker resumed his psychopathic laughter, which Robin soon ended with a quick punch to the head. He would deal with him later.

_ Guys, don't look now, but there about a thousand or so blood-thirsty mutated humanoids behind you._

Of course, Wally turned right around. _Holy cra-! _

_ Get out of here **now**. I've got a plan. _

_ We're not going to leave you! _Miss Martian cried.

_ Just trust me, _Robin pleaded.

Silence.

Then, _I will put my faith in you, Robin. Good luck. _

_ Thanks, Aqualad. Grab the goons and Sportsmaster on your way out and tie them up outside. The police can deal with them later._

When the mutants began to realize that they could move freely beyond their old enclosure, they charged at the Boy Wonder with bloodlust in their eyes. Robin knew he needed to act quick. He scattered out his birdarangs across the room at a pace that would have put the Flash himself to shame. They stuck and with renewed haste, Robin grabbed the Joker and dashed up to the trapdoor. He leaped gracefully over the gaping hole in the floor made by Sportsmaster's gun and in no time reached the front doors of the office building. It would take the Kobra Venom victims quite awhile to get up the narrow corridor, especially when Robin had just planted and released sleeping gas bombs all over the room. The mutants wouldn't wake up until after they were taken care of by the League.

The League. They certainly wouldn't be happy with the team for screwing up the mission, but at least they would've found interesting information and no one was killed. Batman would probably be very disappointed in him if he had used actual bombs. Despite their allegiances and grotesque forms, the mutants were still human. Well, mostly, at least.

Just as Robin reached for the door to the exit, where his friends awaited, something tripped him. The Boy Wonder landed unceremoniously in a heap on the floor and looked back at the Joker, who he had been dragging along behind him. The clown grinned devilishly at the boy and said, "You didn't think you were the only one to plant bombs, now did you?" Before Robin could stop him, the Joker pressed a small red button hidden inside his purple jacket. There was a deafening explosion, the sound of malicious laughter, the feeling of flying through the air, a sickening crack, and then...

Nothing.

* * *

Robin shuddered at his memories. He hoped the team had traveled far enough away to escape the explosions' path. _Why'd I have to save that crazy clown? _The little bird felt his energy seeping away with his blood. He tried in vain to sit up, but just found himself sinking back down shrieking with pain. His wounds had become worse, he was quickly losing blood, and not to mention his other wound from battling Mammoth still afflicted him as well. If he didn't get some medical help soon, he was going to die. Despite his misery, Robin almost chuckled. Him dying, after facing the Joker and countless other villains how many times? He shook his head. The Boy Wonder refused to give up just yet. After all, the League would sense something was wrong and come to their aid. Batman himself would come; he did have that fatherly Bat-sense that could feel when his son was in danger. And wherever his team was at, they would not abandon him either.

Right?

Robin's baby blue eyes dimmed with fatigue as sleep began to call his name.

_ At least the crazy clown went down with me, _Robin thought groggily. _I'll just... close my eyes... until help... comes..._

Horribly familiar laughter pierced the air.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Boy Blunder. Fancy meeting you here! Where's Batsy at? Couldn't stop by to join the party?" More insane giggles were heard as the well-known silhouette appeared unscathed through the smoke clouds. "Now that I think about it, where's your little band of Justice League wannabes?"

Robin could barely stay conscious long enough to see the Joker kneel down beside him, say, "Awww, Bird Boy, you look pained. Maybe I can assist," and pull out his signature knife.

The Boy Wonder could never have imagined how horribly wrong such an easy mission had turned out to be.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm so sorry for the delayed update! I got back from camp on Saturday and have been busy catching up on sleep and family time. XD But now I'm going to stop being a lazy bum and finish up this story, despite how badly written that first chapter was. XD**

**Originally I was planning this on being a two-shot, but now I'm thinking it's going to be a little longer. Anyway, sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thank you guys so much for the reviews, faves, and story watches. This is the most feedback I've ever gotten on anything I've written. Much appreciated. :) **

**Note: I own no shares in Young Justice or it's characters, this is for entertainment purposes only.**

* * *

"How did you esca-" Robin began to ask when a bout of hacking coughs made his body convulse. Crimson blood splattered from his lips onto the ground beside him.

The Joker's snivel of pure malicious pleasure betrayed his act of mock hurt. "Awww, Bird Boy, I'm offended," the clown furrowed his eyebrows dramatically. "Would you really think that I'd blow a building with me inside without thinking it through?"

Robin gave no answer but his coughs.

The Joker pulled his gnarled red lips into a frown and brought his knife down into the boy's stomach, making Robin's violent hacking morph into screams of agony.

"I don't appreciate being _ignored_, little bird." the man growled menacingly through the cacophony of Robin's wails. The Boy Wonder managed to bat-glare through his domino mask, pure hatred meeting the Joker's amused glance.

"What... do you... want... Joker?" Robin snarled through gasps of anguish. The Joker sighed.

"I thought we'd already covered this. You see, I wanted to have a bit of fun. That bank robbery the other week was a bit lacking in terms of entertainment value." The Joker slowly removed his knife from Robin's abdomen, making the boy scream in pain once again.

"So I thought, 'Why don't I call up my good friend, Sportsmaster, and see if he improved any of that crazy serum he was helping to develop?'"

_Shink. _

The white-faced clown stabbed Batman's partner-in-crime in his left shoulder, receiving whimpers of pain from the young teen.

"And you know what? He had! One strain in particular..." He paused briefly to twist the dagger deeper into the boy's flesh. " -could enhance a person's regenerative abilities ten-fold, making him virtually indestructible, and able to survive almost any disaster. Thankfully it came without all that atrocious-looking extra sinew." The Joker chortled maniacally. "Sportsmaster was handing out vials of free samples to those willing, and I just so happened to get one." Robin's eyes widened in spite of himself. Crazy as Joker was, he had never thought that the demented clown would resort to using one of Sportsmaster's trafficked drugs on himself to gain an advantage. The Boy Wonder's eyes then clenched shut as Joker dislodged his blade from Robin's mutilated flesh and struggled to suppress shrieks of pain. It didn't help that the lunatic then began kicking the poor boy with his dirtied loafers. At this point, Robin would welcome the cold envelopment of unconsciousness.

"However," the Joker continued. "Sportsmaster needed a test run to see how the serum held up to explosions and large-scale debris one last time before selling it to the big boys. So we decided to test it here, at this dump of an office building. It even had a built-in underground bunker already there waiting for a wonderful person like myself to exploit, and no one would miss the building _too_ badly. But then I thought, 'Why not let Batsy's little gang of children join in the fun?' and fed some fake intel to your friends at the Justice League." The white-faced clown brandished his arms to the sky. "And here you are!" Laughing, the Joker stopped jabbing Robin's side for a moment and dusted off his blood-soaked gloves. "By now, your friends should be in Sportsmaster and Mammoth's _great_ care back at our hideaway."

Robin paused his grunts of misery, stiffened, and narrowed his eyes. He wanted to kill him.

That crazy clown.

That stupid, demented clown.

If anything had happened to his teammates, he would have no mercy on the Joker. Batman would have to learn to forgive him.

"What are they doing to my friends?" Robin snapped. The Joker let out a burst of deranged laughter that made the Boy Wonder's blood boil.

"Calm down, Boy Blunder," the clown giggled as he reached for a mangled piece of wrought iron on the ground. "The fun has not begun, yet."

Despite his horrendous injuries, Robin screamed and lunged for the Joker in a blind white adrenaline-filled rage, aiming for his throat. His fingers had just closed around the clown's skinny neck when-

_Crack! _

A muffled thump could be heard as Robin fell to the ground in a heap. His vision swirled and swirled until his entire world became enveloped in darkness and the dull ache of pain from his temple became silent, while the haunting sound of laughter echoed throughout the Boy Wonder's throbbing mind.

_Nighty night, Bird Boy._

* * *

Bruce Wayne sighed heavily as he stepped into his black Lamborghini and revved up the engine. It had been a long night at the office; sometimes it felt as if all his time was spent in mundane meetings. Couldn't his business partners at least try to talk in something other than monotone? And why did they insist on meeting at such god-forsaken hours? Bruce shook his head, as if to clear it of his tiresome memories. At least now he could focus on the report from Dick's covert mission he had assigned the teenager's black ops team last night. It was funny how the millionaire felt more comfortable as the Batman than he ever did as Bruce Wayne. He felt in control, strong, powerful. Not dismissed as a ditsy playboy with no day job like he was in his civilian identity. Suddenly, a raucous shrieking noise jerked Bruce out of his reverie. He picked up his cell phone and examined the caller ID.

_Superman? _

Bruce flipped the phone open and answered the phone call with his trademark growl. "What is it, Clark?"

"Have you looked at any televisions recently?" the Man of Steel replied abruptly. Bruce furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Why would he need to look at a television?

"No, but I can turn the media feeds on now."

"Good. Go to Channel 16, and hurry!"

Bruce obeyed without question and opened up the wrist-computer that Dick had given him for his past birthday. He channeled it to the nearest satellite connection. News footage flashed across the holographic screen, showing images of a demolished office building. It looked like a bomb had completely destroyed its infrastructure. Firefighters were trying desperately to put out the fires that were ravaging the ground dangerously close to unearthed pipe lines.

_"In a mysterious late-night bombing, a local Gotham business facility was completely demolished, and the fire department is struggling to put out the flames," _the news anchor's voice droned._ "It appears that there was no one in the building at the time of the attack and there are no reports of fatalities or injuries. However, locals are advised to evacuate the surrounding areas for the time being until the fires are under control. Currently, there are no suspects for this terrorist attack, though police are currently investigating the situation."_

_That was the company that I told the Team to investigate! _Bruce's eyes widened. _What exactly did they do?_

"They were supposed to be on reconnaissance only," he muttered. "I'm going to have a very stern talk with the Team." Dick could say goodbye to video game privileges until he was college-age.

"That's just it, Bruce. The Team has not made contact with the League for several hours. All communications with them have been severed somehow."

"_What?" _The millionaire allowed his voice to show the slightest hint of emotion before once again regaining his stoic composure. "Why was I not alerted of this sooner?"

"We thought that they were keeping radio silence due to the nature of their mission. But when we saw the news report and tried to reach Robin's communicator, the line was dead. Nonexistent." Clark paused. "Has Dick contacted you in any way at all?"

Bruce was silent for a moment. "No, he hasn't." Then the Dark Knight said, "Meet me at the crime scene in ten minutes, and don't you _dare_ be late, Kent."

After hurriedly disconnecting the phone call, Bruce reached down into a secret compartment under the Lamborghini's driver seat and pulled out his spare Batman suit. He never left home without it, just as he had taught Dick to never leave home without his utility belt. Bruce dressed swiftly into the Dark Knight's attire and signaled for the Batmobile to come to him. As the morning light peaked out over the city's horizon, the Caped Crusader all but ignored its beauty and gazed grimly towards the thin trail of smoke that he could guess was coming from the devastated office building, pondering the predicament Dick had gotten himself into. Batman knew from experience that his adopted son would never disobey orders without a good reason, nor would he deliberately cut off communications to him or the Justice League. Although Bruce knew that the raven-haired boy was more than capable of completing a mission without the League's or his back-up, Dick understood better than anyone that you could never be too careful. Something was definitely off.

A flash of movement caught the Dark Knight's eye. The Batmobile had arrived. Batman strode over to the vehicle, hopped in, and prepared a course for the crime scene.

If Dick was in trouble, things were about to get serious. Deadly serious.

* * *

**This chapter is way shorter than the first, but I just could not for the life of me find a better way to add more without ending it strangely. Oh well. I hope y'all enjoyed!**

**(Reviews make the world go round, you know.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, guys, I'm so glad people like this story. I never thought I'd get so many story and author alerts. Definitely feeling the aster. :) Thank you guys so much for the feedback, you don't know how much it means to me. If I could give you all a hug and homemade cookies, I would. You guys are the best! :)**

**In other news, I've been reading the New 52 Batman & Robin comics, and I love them. I know it's highly unlikely, but I'd love to get a Batman animated show with Damian in it. :D By the way, who's excited for the Dark Knight Rises? I ordered my tickets for the midnight premiere.**

**Anyway, enjoy the chapter! For some reason, this chapter was extremely difficult to write. And apparently this story takes place after Failsafe. XD**

**Note: I do not hold copyright claims to Young Justice, DC, or it's characters, this was made for entertainment purposes only.**

* * *

It felt like swimming in a sea of soft, murky darkness.

Robin could sense that he was drifting weightlessly, ungrounded to any earthly plane of thinking, free of the pain and torturous wounds that awaited him in the waking world. In this strange realm of his subconscious, there was nothing; no suffering, no battles, no villains, no crazed clowns. Everything was so surreal. Robin felt almost... at peace. Relaxed for the first time in what felt like years, the boy allowed his mind to succumb to the senseless pleasure of idleness, until a thought crossed his mind.

_Am I dead? _

The lethargic murkiness that surrounded him seemed to shiver for a moment, and then everything began crashing down. The blackness swirled around him, faster and faster until it felt like Robin was being suffocated by it. The boy began to panic. Visions began to thunder inside of the darkness, showing images of five very familiar acrobats falling, falling, falling to the cold, unforgiving earth, unable to stop their descent until their broken, mutilated bodies were red paint splatters on the soil. He witnessed his friends, his teammates, and his mentor exterminated right before his very eyes, destroyed by alien energy beams. Then he saw his uncle, the last remnant of his family and the only reminder of the life he once knew, slowly weaken and die on a cold hospital bed, the various beeping machines he was hooked up to unable to save him. Finally, he watched himself and Kid Flash disintegrate into a fiery blaze, screaming, their spirits leaving their bodies as the flames consumed them. It seemed that every bad thing that had ever happened in the young bird's life, every failure that he burdened himself with, was being thrust into his face on repeat, duplicating the nightmares that plagued him every night. Robin let out a soundless scream and began thrashing out at the formless murk. He didn't want to die; he didn't want to join the ranks of the deceased. Not like this.

Then, Robin was suddenly aware of a familiar voice echoing throughout the turbulence of his emotions.

"Rob, dude, snap out of it!"

But the boy's mind would not quiet. The darkness became more chaotic and tumultuous until Robin could no longer keep track of his thoughts. He was terrified. Terrified of dying, terrified of losing another loved one.

Terrified of being alone again.

In a last attempt effort to regain his thoughts, Robin forced opened his eyes.

* * *

Batman had been waiting at the wreckage in his Batmobile for a few minutes when Superman came flying over the horizon. The Caped Crusader did not tolerate tardiness, no matter how minimal. "Glad to see you could make it," the Dark Knight grumbled.

"Sorry," the Man of Steel panted. "I got held up over a small crisis in Metropolis." He paused as he examined the scene of smoking rubble and flashlight beams bouncing over the debris as a task force of police officers scoured the area for clues. "Have you done any readings or research of the area?" Superman questioned.

Batman nodded. "It appears the building was built over a World War II bomb shelter, and the architects never bothered to remove it. However, the bunker seems to be a lot bigger than the regular dimensions of fallout shelters from that era; most of the building has caved into it. I bet that if there are any clues to what happened to the Team, it would be down there." He turned to the Last Son of Krypton. "I hoped I could use some of your brawn to get down there."

Superman allowed himself a small smirk. The Dark Knight of Gotham, admitting to needing help? Preposterous. Nevertheless, he said, "I'll see what I can do." He then began hauling huge metal support beams and rubble out of the wreckage. Some of the police officers caught on to what he was doing, and called in some cranes to help speed the process along. Still, even with the cranes, the officers, Batman, and Superman helping, many hours passed before enough debris was cleared for the two superheroes to explore the not-very-underground bunker. The Bat lowered himself into the gaping hole in the ground with one of his grappling hooks and grabbed a flashlight he kept in his utility belt, while the Man of Steel simply drifted downwards and used his excellent sight to explore the cavernous space. At first, neither of the heroes had much luck finding clues. But then, a low moan escaped from underneath one of the ginormous mounds of concrete.

Batman looked in the direction of Superman, who caught his eye and nodded. Together, they slowly approached the giant rock, and the Metropolis Marvel lifted it up to reveal a broken colossal beast underneath. Superman tossed the rock aside and Batman bent down to examine the strange being further. The creature looked almost human-like, apart from the bulging muscles, the bulky jawline, and the primitive-looking facial features. Yet it looked somewhat... familiar. Some of the surrounding wreckage had spray painted words on them, warning him with messages of _FRAGILE: POTENTIAL BIOHAZARD. _Then it clicked. _A_ _Kobra Venom victim_, Batman realized. _Sportsmaster, no doubt. _But why would he destroy a building if he was using it to house Kobra Venom and his test subjects? It was unusual, even for Sportsmaster. He would have never sacrificed his cargo for the sake of any theatrics. Something else must have been the cause. But what? Whether he liked it or not, the Dark Knight soon got his answer.

"Hey, Batman, come over here!" Superman called. "I found something you might want to see." To prevent it from getting any ideas of escape, Batman injected a healthy dose of sedatives into the Kobra victim. Warily, the Caped Crusader stood and walked over to where the Big Blue Boy Scout was positioned. What he saw utterly repulsed him and sent a sick trickle of dread down his spine. In a pile of what must have been the center of the vast bunker lay a collection of Joker cards.

_Of course. It had to be the clown. _

Batman backed slowly away from the pile, unwilling to let his Kryptonian friend see the look of horror on his face. If the Joker had been here, and the young superheroes were in his custody... The Dark Knight forced himself to stop his train of thought. He did not even want to think of what may be happening to his little bird and the others if that was the case. Instead, he called to one of the nearby officers near the surface of the hole. It seemed the police were on his side this time around. "Any luck with finding evidence up there?" The officer seemed to be talking urgently to another one of his fellow cop comrades and abruptly turned to answer the Batman. "One squad has found samples of blood spatters on the east side of the rubble of the compound that has been written out a message; more is partially covered by a concrete slab."

Blood?

Batman shot his grapple gun to the surface and did an impressive backflip in order to get on to the top of the hole. Then, he strode over to where a cluster of officers were hovering around a spot in the eastern part of the devastation. The Dark Knight shouldered his way through the small crowd and did a double take. Written in blood, and lots of it, was the message from none other than the Joker.

_Gotcha this time, Batsy. _

Batman narrowed his eyes and gave a small growl of frustration. His fingers clenched tightly into balls, and the Caped Crusader struggled to resist the urge to hurl his fists into someone's face. This whole thing had been a set-up to get to _him. _How could he not have seen it before? He should have triple-checked his sources before sending the Team out here.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid, _he berated silently to himself.

"Something the matter Ba-" Superman had silently hovered over to the throng of people when he saw what everyone was looking at. "-Oh my gosh." For once, the man had no words of comfort. Instead, he placed a steady hand on his comrade's shoulder, as if to prevent him from doing anything too rash. Batman just glowered at the carnage, like a stern gaze could make the gory scene go away. However, underneath the concrete slab the officer had mentioned before was another pool of blood trickling out into the early morning light, seeping into the crimson-red words of the Joker's taunt. The Caped Crusader, in his anger, grabbed the two-ton mound with his hands, grunted, and overturned it without the help of the Man of Steel. Hell hath no anger like that of a ticked off Bat, after all. However, the Dark Knight soon came to regret his decision. Underneath the slab laid a perfect outline of a very familiar silhouette, laced with a river of sanguine-colored liquid.

_Robin! _The Batman could barely restrain himself from shouting in utter revulsion.

And right where his young ward's stomach would be was a bloodied knife sticking out of the ground, a small note attached to the helm. Shakily, Batman took the note from the weapon and opened it, afraid of what he might read. His worries were not in vain.

_It's his blood, ya know, _the Joker wrote. _He ain't got much left of it, so I couldn't draw you a map to where the party's at. Sorry! Maybe we'll send ya a video invite later. For now, I've got other things planned for the little bird. Always wanted to carve this one, after all. His friends will serve as fresh entertainment as well._

Batman could almost hear the deranged villain's maniacal laughter ringing in his ears. It made him want to hurl. The Caped Crusader wanted to crumple up the piece of paper, shove it down that sick lunatic's throat, and then make him suffer tenfold for whatever he was doing to Robin and the team. But he must restrain himself. Rein in his emotions. He must be cold, calculating, and think with his head. For Robin. For the Team. Slowly, the Dark Knight rose from the bloody site, taking the note and a sample of the blood with him, and began parting his way through the crowd of now silent officers; all were apparently too shocked at the gory scene to object to his departure and obstruction of police evidence. Superman followed him in suit.

"Bat are you-?"

"I'm fine," the dark-dressed man said curtly. "Right now, we've got to figure out where the Joker is keeping the Team. Rob- they _all_ may not have much time left."

"To the Watchtower, then?"

"To the Watchtower."

* * *

A bright white light nearly blinded Robin as he awakened from his nightmarish reverie. He let out a small shriek as a force rammed him from the side of his face and he felt himself falling. The Boy Wonder struggled to catch himself, but found that his hands and feet were bound to some kind of metal chair. _Crash! _ He landed face first on the cold, heartless, concrete floor. Spots clouded his vision and Robin almost shrank back into the encroaching darkness when he heard a ragged sigh from above and muffled gasps from a corner of the room. "Sheesh Bird Boy, would you keep it down? _Some_ people can't get their beauty sleep with all this screaming in the background."

The voice made his blood turn cold, and the spots cleared from his vision. The boy looked up and saw the Joker meet his eyes, a disgruntled look apparent on the clown's scarred face. Robin smirked. "Well, you sure do need yours. Not like it's going to help much." The white-faced man just chortled.

"I don't think you're in a position to talk like that, Boy Blunder."

Robin knew what that meant, and he steeled himself for another blow. He wasn't sure how much more his body could take, though; the adrenaline he felt from his nightmare had worn away and now he was feeling the full effects of his broken bones and blood loss. Just then, he heard more voices. Familiar voices.

"Stop! Don't hurt him anymore, please! He can't take it!"

"He's no good to you dead, Joker! Leave him alone!"

"Miss Martian?" Robin choked. "Kid Flash?" His eyes wandered to the side of the grungy concrete room and saw his teammates bound with a titanium alloy rope much like he was, only they seemed to be inhibited by collars similar to the ones at the Belle Reve penitentiary. Superboy had one in addition to a small sliver of kryponite strapped to his chest. Aqualad was stripped of his waterbearers, and Artemis was deprived of her bow and arrows. They all looked as tired and beat-up as the dark-haired acrobat felt.

"Robin!" M'gann cried out. She looked as if she was on the verge of tears. Robin felt a pang of guilt. Miss Martian was so free and child-like; meeting the Joker may have ended up killing her sweet but naive innocence. Nevertheless, he shot her a tired smile.

"Hey, Miss Martian. You feelin' the aster yet?"

"I don't think any of us are 'feeling the aster' right now, bro," Kid Flash glumly murmured. Robin frowned. If Kid Mouth was acting despondent, then they were in some deep trouble.

"Well if we're all done with the sappy pleasantries, I say we let the fun begin," the Joker giggled, and grabbed a beat-up camera from inside his jacket pocket. "But first, let's send a little message to our friends at the Justice League."


End file.
